Job’s Reply to Eliphaz161Then Job answered:2I have heard many things like these.You are all miserable comforters.3Is there no end to your empty[D]16:3 Lit windy; Jb 15:2 words?What provokes you that you continue testifying?4If you were in my place I could also talk like you.I could string words together against youand shake my head at you.5Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.6Even if I speak, my suffering is not relieved,and if I hold back, what have I lost?7Surely He[E]16:7 Or it has now exhausted me.You have devastated my entire family.8You have shriveled me up[F]16:8 Or have seized me; Hb obscure—it has become a witness;My frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.9His anger tears at me, and He harasses me.He gnashes His teeth at me.My enemy pierces me with His eyes.10They open their mouths against meand strike my cheeks with contempt;they join themselves together against me.11God hands me over to unjust men;[G]16:11 LXX, Vg; MT reads to a boyHe throws me into the hands of the wicked.12I was at ease, but He shattered me;He seized me by the scruff of the neckand smashed me to pieces.He set me up as His target;13His archers[H]16:13 Or arrows surround me.He pierces my kidneys without mercyand pours my bile on the ground.14He breaks through my defenses again and again;[I]16:14 Lit through me, breach on breachHe charges at me like a warrior.15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;I have buried my strength[J]16:15 Lit horn in the dust.16My face has grown red with weeping,and darkness covers my eyes,17although my hands are free from violenceand my prayer is pure.18Earth, do not cover my blood;may my cry for help find no resting place.19Even now my witness is in heaven,and my advocate is in the heights!20My friends scoff at meas I weep before God.21I wish that someone might arbitratebetween a man and Godjust as a man pleads for his friend.22For only a few years will passbefore I go the way of no return.